The Civil War

Ward, Geoffrey C.

ISBN 10: 0679403736 ISBN 13: 9780679403739

Publisher: Random House Audio, 1991

Synopsis

Now on audio -- excerpts from the mega-bestselling companion volume to Ken Burns' phenomenally successful nine-part PBS Series, "The Civil War."

The Civil War is a stunning evocation of one of the most crucial times in our history, one that has recaptured the American imagination. Here are the events of a war that tore our nation asunder, from the firing of the first shot at Fort Sumter, to the siege of Vicksburg, the battles of Shiloh and Gettysburg, to Sherman's march to the sea, to the fall of Richmond. Here, too, is the story of the familiar figures who battled at the frontlines and behind the scenes: President Lincoln, Southern statesman Jefferson Davis and the brilliant generals Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant. And here are glimpses into the lives of the soldiers, the slaves, the families who willingly fought against their own kin. This is an extraordinary and spectacular account of a moment in history that dramatically and forever changed America.

About this title

About the Author

Geoffrey C. Ward is the author of eleven books, including A First-Class Temperament, which won the 1989 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 1990 Francis Parkman Prize of the Society of American Historians. He has written or co-written many documentary films, including The Civil War, Baseball, The West, Thomas Jefferson, Not for Ourselves Alone, and Jazz. He lives in New York City.

Ken Burns, founder of Florentine Films, is a director, producer, and writer who has been making documentaries for more than twenty years. His landmark film The Civil War was the highest-rated series in the history of American public television, and his work has won numerous prizes, including the Emmy and Peabody Awards. He lives in Walpole, New Hampshire.
From the Trade Paperback edition.

From Library Journal

Filled with vignettes of generals, soldiers, and women on the home front, and spiced by personal accounts of battles and camp life, this book presents the war as the central defining event of American history and of the lives of those Americans caught up in it. In four separate, additional essays, professional historians briefly discuss the causes of the war, emancipation, the politics of the war, and its long-term meaning. Ward's running narrative will cause scholars to wince at his occasional hyperbole, but readers will thrill to his brisk prose, ironic sense, and eye for detail--and to the 500+ photographs studding the volume (some startling, several never before published). Intended as the companion to a nine-part PBS-TV series on the Civil War, this compelling work should command its own large audience. No book can fully capture the intensity of the war, but this volume approaches it. Highly recommended for public and college libraries. BOMC main selection; previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/1/90.
-Randall M. Miller, St. Joseph's Univ., Philadelphia
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House Audio
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0679403736
• ISBN 13: 9780679403739
• Binding: Audio Cassette